Description

winner of the Ohio Academy of History Publication Award; 2006 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award, honorable mention in political science

“This book is an original, important, and interesting contribution to the literature on President Eisenhower and on American history in the years before and after World War II. It will make a difference in the way historians and political scientists think about a critical period of national history. Too few books have that sort of impact. . . .” —Michael A. McGerr, author of A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870–1920

Arthur Larson was the chief architect of moderate conservatism—one of the most influential and least studied political forces in U.S. history. During the Eisenhower administration, Larson held three major posts: Under Secretary of Labor, Director of the United States Information Agency, and chief presidential speechwriter. In each of these roles, Larson’s most important achievement was to explain clearly and cogently what the administration stood for on matters foreign and domestic. Larson’s views were put forth most forcefully in A Republican Looks at His Party, published in 1956. Larson and his book provided the Eisenhower administration with “the vision thing.” His limitations and disappointments also help explain Eisenhower-era conservatism. They illuminate the extent to which there was a gap between what the “Modern Republicans” believed and what they said and were able to accomplish, and why those beliefs, values, and achievements did not always mesh. Larson’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to prevent the rise of the New Right are especially enlightening, for they help to clarify why the party of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s gradually became the party of the more conservative Ronald Reagan by the 1980s. Modern Republican will enlighten readers who want to understand more fully the historical context of today’s divisive political arena.

Author Bio

David L. Stebenne is Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University and author of Arthur J. Goldberg: New Deal Liberal.

Reviews

"Trace[s] the origins of compassionate conservatism all the way back to the Eisenhower administration, and more particularly to the principles outlined by Arthur Larson. . . .Larson's message represented a moderate conservatism that accepted the need for maintaining the responsibility of the individual while advocating the responsibility of individual states to help solve pressing social problems. . . . [A] readable and insightful look into the reasons for the recent successes and failures of compassionate conservatism." —Virginia Quarterly Review

"Part biography, part political analysis, and buoyed by an exhaustive range of primary sources, [Stebenne] documents how an obscure professor . . . became President Dwight D. Eisenhower's alter ego." —The Journal of American History

"There was a time when the nation had a self-proclaimed Republican moderate in the White House. His name was Dwight D. Eisenhower and the most articulate spokesman for the president's views was Arthur Larson. David Stebenne has made an important contribution in his biography of this little remembered but historically important figure." —Fred I. Greenstein,, Chairman, Program in Leadership Studies, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

"Stebenne makes an important contribution to the scholarship on Eisenhower Republicanism. His book is well written and carefully researched." —American Historical Review , June 2008

Customer Reviews

Table of Contents

ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Native Son of the Upper Midwest2. Oxford's Imprint3. A Few False Starts4. Legal Scholar5. To the Eisenhower Administration6. Of Theory and Practice7. A Republican Looks at His Party8. Caught in the Crosscurrents9. The President's "Ghost"10. Dueling with the New Right11. Victories and DefeatsEpilogueNotesIndex